Blog: Military Commanders Misusing Punishments to Avoid Appeals

Tony Carr, blogging at John Q. Public, recently highlighted an incident at Laughlin AFB in which four officers were offered Articles 15 for drug-related offenses. The first officer “publicly argue[d] his case with the convening authority” — and won. His Article 15 was thrown out.

Carr continues with what (he says) the base did next [emphasis added]:

The remaining three officers accused of factually identical conduct based on the same body of evidence likely assumed their charges would be similarly dissolved…

Calculating that the evidence against the remaining three was too weak to survive a genuine challenge, the Laughlin chain of command…opted to achieve the functional equivalent of an Article 15 by formally reprimanding the remaining officers…

Unlike an Article 15 or court-martial, an administrative Letter of Reprimand (LOR) can be issued on the basis of information solely and subjectively evaluated by Read more

USAFA Cadets Choose Bombardier, Christian as Exemplar

In a relatively recent tradition, each class of US Air Force Academy cadets since 2000 has chosen an “exemplar” representing the character and fortitude to which they would like to aspire. Exemplars have included airpower giants like Mitchell and Doolittle, famous fighter pilots like Olds, and Major David Brodeur, USAFA Class of 1999, who was killed in Afghanistan.

The USAFA Class of 2018 recently chose as its exemplar Capt Louis Zamperini, Army Air Corps bombardier, POW, and outspoken Christian:

Cadet 3rd Class J. Benson Anderson, Jr., an Exemplar Committee official, said Zamperini was selected because he demonstrated the character and conviction the Class of 2018 strives to maintain.

“His loyalty in Read more

US Army Formally Defines “Online Misconduct”

In its continuing effort to deal with the ubiquitous presence of social media, the US Army recently published an ALARACT (All Army Activities) message (PDF) defining what constitutes actionable “misconduct”:

Online misconduct, it says, is “the use of electronic communication to inflict harm. Examples include, but are not limited to: harassment, bullying, hazing, stalking, discrimination, retaliation, or any other types of misconduct that undermine dignity and respect.”

The Army’s efforts are admirable, but it remains to be seen whether the changes can be fairly implemented without the appearance of selective enforcement — or how the new efforts to “monitor” social media will be viewed among privacy and liberty advocates. Notably, the Army aimed its sights not at just those who misbehave online, but also those who don’t misbehave but somehow “condone” such action [emphasis added]:  Read more

Huffington Post: Most Captivating Photo of Navy Baptism at Sea

Chris McGonigal of The Huffington Post — not precisely a bastion of conservative values — posted a list of “The Most Captivating Military Photos From August 2015.” The first one out of the chute was of a baptism at sea conducted on the USS George Washington:

Lt. Cole Yoos [of the] Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73), and Lt. Brian Kirschenbaum, a Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 chaplain, baptize Aviation Structural Mechanic (Safety Equipment) 2nd Class Ryan Norton, from Minto, North Dakota in the baptismal pool on the ship’s flight deck during a baptism-at-sea.

Better not let Michael “Mikey” Weinstein see that.  He thinks such displays of religious freedom like baptisms on the flight deck of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier are propaganda for terrorists. That means, of course, Read more

Atheist: Christians Playing Victim, Atheists are Real Victims

Jason Torpy, a former US Army Captain and current atheist, recently claimed that Christians in the US military are “play[ing] the victim” while atheists are the real victims:

“We are not alone in suffering from what has been a largely successful tactic for a subset of Christians to play the victim,” said Jason Torpy.

Journalist Leo Shane of the Military Times made the regrettable decision to drop any qualifiers, presenting Torpy’s assertions as fact [emphasis added]:

Torpy and his group are hoping…the [IG] will go beyond the unsubstantiated problems posed by Congress and include some of the actual discrimination faced by humanists and atheists that he detailed in conversations with the office.

“We need to redirect to real problems,” [he said].

Some of the issues raised by Congress have Read more

Military Analogies and Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis

Quite a few people have begun to trot out military analogies to explain or justify the jailing of Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis.  For some, they may have seen the effectiveness of using the military as a means to promote agendas over the past few years.  For others, the “clean cut” black/white nature of the military simply makes a convenient argument.

The general argument goes that because a military officer wouldn’t be able to refuse to do his job, then Davis shouldn’t either.

From Bryan Fulwider of the Interfaith Council of Florida:  Read more

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis Compared to Conscientious Objector

As previously discussed, Dr. Albert Mohler noted the issues facing now-jailed Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis will eventually be faced even by members of the military.

Over at Breibart, editor (and Liberty Institute attorney) Ken Klukowski also used a military comparison to Davis’ protests:

Ever since the founding of the republic, the U.S. military has allowed those who religiously object to the use of deadly force to be assigned to noncombatant roles in the military so that they never have to pick up a weapon…

Here, however, the parallel would be if a conscientious objector were nonetheless assigned as an officer in command of an infantry unit, and then that officer ordered all the troops under his command to set aside their weapons and refuse to fight, just like their commander. The officer Read more

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